What Was The First Computer Used For

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What was the first computer? – Emily, age nine, Brookline, Massachusetts

The first modern electronic digital calculator was called the Atanasoff–Drupe computer, or ABC.

It was built by physics Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, in 1942 at Iowa State College, now known as Iowa Land University.

That'due south where I have been teaching computer engineering for over thirty years, and I'one thousand as well a collector of old computers. I got to meet Atanasoff when he visited Iowa State and got a signed copy of his book.

Earlier ABC, there were mechanical computing devices that could perform simple calculations. The offset mechanical estimator, The Babbage Difference Engine, was designed by Charles Babbage in 1822. The ABC was the footing for the modern computer we all use today.

The ABC's drums. Courtesy of Iowa State University Library Special Collections and Academy Athenaeum, CC BY-ND

The ABC weighed over 700 pounds and used vacuum tubes. Information technology had a rotating drum, a little bigger than a paint tin can, that had small capacitors on it. A capacitor is device that tin can store an electrical accuse, similar a bombardment.

The ABC was designed to solve problems with up to 29 different variables. You might exist familiar with equations with one variable, like 2y = xiv. Now imagine 29 dissimilar variables. These are common problems in physics and other sciences, but were difficult and time-consuming to solve by hand.

Atanasoff was credited with several breakthrough ideas that are nevertheless present in modern computers. The most important idea was using binary digits, just ones and zeroes, to represent all numbers and data. This immune the calculations to exist performed using electronics.

Another thought was the separation of the program (the estimator instructions) and memory (places to store numbers).

The ABC completed 1 functioning virtually every 15 seconds. Compared to the millions of operations per second of today'south calculator, that probably seems very wearisome.

Different today'due south computers, the ABC did not have a changeable stored programme. This meant the program was fixed and designed to do a single task. This also meant that, to solve these problems, an operator had to write down the intermediate answer and then feed that back into the ABC. Atanasoff left Iowa Land before he perfected a storage method that would take eliminated the need for the operator to reenter the intermediate results.

Part of the ABC. Courtesy of Iowa State Academy Library Special Collections and Academy Archives, CC By-ND

Shortly afterward Atanasoff left Iowa State, the ABC was dismantled. Atanasoff never filed a patent for his invention. That ways that, for a long time, many people weren't aware of the ABC.

In 1947, the creators of the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Figurer, or ENIAC, filed a patent. This allowed them to merits they were the inventors of the digital computer. For several decades, nearly people idea that the ENIAC was the get-go modern computer.

Only ane of the inventors of the ENIAC had visited Atanasoff in 1941. The courts afterward ruled that this visit influenced the design of the ENIAC. The ENIAC patent was thrown out past a judge in 1973.

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The holders of the ENIAC patent argued that the ABC never really worked. Since all that remained was i of the pulsate memory units, it was hard to bear witness otherwise.

In 1997 a team of faculty, researchers and students at Iowa State University finished building a replica of the ABC. They were able to demonstrate that the ABC did function. You tin run into the replica today at the Figurer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

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